Obsuth I, Madia JE, Murray AL, Thompson I, Daniels H. The impact of school exclusion in childhood on health and well-being outcomes in adulthood: Estimating causal effects using inverse probability of treatment weighting.
Br J Educ Psychol 2024;
94:460-473. [PMID:
38155360 DOI:
10.1111/bjep.12656]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/02/2023] [Accepted: 12/08/2023] [Indexed: 12/30/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Previous evidence has suggested a strong association between school exclusion and health outcomes. However, as health risks are themselves related to the risk of experiencing a school exclusion, it has been challenging to determine the extent to which school exclusion impacts later health outcomes, as opposed to reflecting a marker for pre-existing risks.
AIM
The aim of the current study was to address this challenge in estimating the medium-to-long-term impact of school exclusion of health and well-being outcomes.
METHODS
To this end, we used an inverse propensity weighting approach in the Next Steps data set (N = 6534, from wave 1, 2014, to wave 8, 2015).
RESULTS
We found that after weighting for propensity of treatment scores estimated based on a wide range of factors, including previous health indicators, there was a significant effect of school exclusion on a wide range of health and well-being outcomes.
DISCUSSION
These results provide some of the most robust evidence to date that school exclusion harms long-term health outcomes.
CONCLUSION
The findings suggest that policies should aim to reduce exclusion and ensure access to preventative health support for those who experience a school exclusion.
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